Iran
BASHU, THE LITTLE STRANGER
120 MIN
1986
Ten-year-old Bashu is orphaned when his Persian Gulf village is bombed. Hiding in the back of a truck, he is taken north around the Caspian Sea, where he jumps off. The people in this alien land take a dislike to the little stranger and deride his skin and accent. Nai, a woman whose husband is away, finds the boy and accepts him as her own son....
Cast & Crew
Producer: Alireza Zarrin
Director: Bahram Beyzai
Script: Bahram Beyzai
Director of Photography: Firouz Malakzadeh
Production Design: Iraj Raminfar
Sound: Jahangir Mirshekari, Asghar Shahverdi, Behrouz Moavenian
Editing: Bahram Beyzai
Cast: Soussan Taslimi, Adnan Afravian, Parviz Purhosseini, Akbar Doudkar, Farrokhlagha Houshmand
Production: Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults
Awards
Best Restored Film - Venezia Classici Award, Venice IFF, 2025
Cast & Crew
Producer: Alireza Zarrin
Director: Bahram Beyzai
Script: Bahram Beyzai
Director of Photography: Firouz Malakzadeh
Production Design: Iraj Raminfar
Sound: Jahangir Mirshekari, Asghar Shahverdi, Behrouz Moavenian
Editing: Bahram Beyzai
Cast: Soussan Taslimi, Adnan Afravian, Parviz Purhosseini, Akbar Doudkar, Farrokhlagha Houshmand
Production: Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults
Awards
Best Restored Film - Venezia Classici Award, Venice IFF, 2025
Bahram Beyzai (1938-2025)
Bahram Beyzai was a celebrated Iranian director, playwright, and screenwriter, renowned for his poetic storytelling and deep engagement with Persian history and mythology. A leading figure in Iran’s New Wave cinema. Bahram Beizai started skipping school from around the age of 17 in order to go to movies, which were becoming popular in Iran at a rapid pace. This only fed his hunger to learn more about cinema and the visual arts. By 1961, he had already spent a lot of time studying-and researching - ancient Persian and pre-Islamic culture and literature. This led him to studying Eastern Theater and traditional Iranian theater & arts, which would help him formulate a new non-western identity for Iranian theatre. By 1961, he had already published numerous articles in various arts and literary journals. In 1962, he made his first short film (4 minutes) in 8mm format. In the next two years he wrote several plays and published Theater in Japan. In 1972, he made his first feature film Ragbar (Downpour), which to this day remains one of the best Iranian films ever made.
Filmography
Uncle Moustache (short, 1970), Downpour (1972), Journey (short, 1972), The Stranger and the Fog (1974), The Crow (1978), Ballad of Tara (1980), Death of Yazdgerd (1981), Bashu, the Little Stranger (1986), Maybe Some Other Time (1988), Travellers (1992), Kish Stories (short, 1998), Killing Mad Dogs (2001), The Eloquent Carpet (short, 2006),
When We Are All Asleep (2009).
Bahram Beyzai was a celebrated Iranian director, playwright, and screenwriter, renowned for his poetic storytelling and deep engagement with Persian history and mythology. A leading figure in Iran’s New Wave cinema. Bahram Beizai started skipping school from around the age of 17 in order to go to movies, which were becoming popular in Iran at a rapid pace. This only fed his hunger to learn more about cinema and the visual arts. By 1961, he had already spent a lot of time studying-and researching - ancient Persian and pre-Islamic culture and literature. This led him to studying Eastern Theater and traditional Iranian theater & arts, which would help him formulate a new non-western identity for Iranian theatre. By 1961, he had already published numerous articles in various arts and literary journals. In 1962, he made his first short film (4 minutes) in 8mm format. In the next two years he wrote several plays and published Theater in Japan. In 1972, he made his first feature film Ragbar (Downpour), which to this day remains one of the best Iranian films ever made.
Filmography
Uncle Moustache (short, 1970), Downpour (1972), Journey (short, 1972), The Stranger and the Fog (1974), The Crow (1978), Ballad of Tara (1980), Death of Yazdgerd (1981), Bashu, the Little Stranger (1986), Maybe Some Other Time (1988), Travellers (1992), Kish Stories (short, 1998), Killing Mad Dogs (2001), The Eloquent Carpet (short, 2006),
When We Are All Asleep (2009).
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